The Independent Role of Body Mass Index (BMI) and Severity of Depressive Symptoms on Biological Changes of Women Affected by Overweight/Obesity

Abstract

Background: Both obesity and depression are medical conditions associated with severe disability and biological abnormalities. Our aim was to study associations between Body Mass Index (BMI), depression and biological changes in women affected by overweight or obesity. Methods: Depressive symptoms were evaluated by the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) questionnaire in 200 women affected by overweight/obesity (mean age of the sample 52.7 12.9 years, BMI 33.8 5.5 kg/m2). A blood sample was obtained for evaluation of biochemical (oxytocin and vitamin D), inflammatory and epigenetic (methylation of clock genes) parameters. Multivariable linear regression models were used to study the association between BMI or severity of depressive symptoms (BDI-II scores) with different biomarkers. Results: BMI was found to be associated with severity of depressive symptoms (p = 0.050). Severity of obesity resulted to be associated with lower plasma levels of oxytocin (p = 0.053), vitamin D deficiency (p = 0.006) and higher plasma levels of IFN-γ (p = 0.004), IL-6 (p = 0.013), IL-7 (p = 0.013), TNF-alpha (p = 0.036) and chemokine ligand 3 (CCL3) (p = 0.013, R2 = 0.03). Severity of depression was significantly associated with more methylation of clock genes CRY1 (p = 0.034, R2 = 0.16) and CRY2 (p = 0.019, R2 = 0.47). More severe depression together with higher levels of IL-8 strongly predicted lower methylation of CLOCK gene (p = 0.009); Conclusions: Different biological abnormalities have been found to be independently associated with BMI and severity of depressive symptoms in women affected by overweight/obesity. The complex interplay between overweight, depression and biological changes will have to be better clarified by future studies.

A Preliminary Study of Proinflammatory Cytokines and Depression Following West Nile Virus Infection

“…These findings suggest that symptomatic and severe WNV infections may be associated with self-reported depression and that other comorbid conditions could be contributing factors. Although the mechanisms are unclear, this is consistent with previous findings regarding increased depression among those with obesity [44,45]. The potential link between obesity and WNV infection may be of interest considering WN encephalitis could increase risk for obesity via higher neurocognitive control variability and lower physical quality of life [46].…”

Clinical and Biological Factors Are Associated with Treatment-Resistant Depression

“…Duration of untreated illness was considered as the time elapsing between first episode of MDD and the prescription of a proper pharmacological treatment (antidepressant or quetiapine) [ 29 ]. Obesity was defined as a BMI ≥ 30 [ 30 ].…”

Synovial Fluid-Derived Extracellular Vesicles of Patients with Arthritides Contribute to Hippocampal Synaptic Dysfunctions and Increase with Mood Disorders Severity in Humans

“…This is particularly true for those with RA or SpA as reported in previous investigations by our group on different samples [ 14 , 81 ]. Similarly, increased BMI has been already found to be associated with the onset and severity of depressive symptoms as a result of impaired lipid metabolism [ 82 ], weakness of antioxidant defenses [ 83 ], and increased inflammation [ 84 ]. These findings are consistent with the fact that most patients show prominent neuroticism as this personality trait was associated with depressive disorders [ 85 ], and generally poor mental health [ 54 ].…”